


Domino Effect

by XtaticPearl



Series: Phoenix and Eagle - MCU [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Developing Friendships, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 05:39:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14157984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XtaticPearl/pseuds/XtaticPearl
Summary: Steve knows that there are aftermaths to all actions but he can't move past the ones he didn't know about. Tony can't stop trying to reach for a future.





	Domino Effect

The hospital staff was frazzled by the time Tony came back from his little fishing trip. 

"Again?" he asked as he met Wilson outside the room, the bag holding the shield heavy in his hand. Sam Wilson was, unsurprisingly, as stubborn as the man he was waiting on and Tony casually wondered if Steve had some sort of a beacon that attracted reckless and determinedly heroic people to him. Natasha would make a point of disagreeing about being heroic but Tony knew what it had cost her to leak the information that exposed all her vulnerabilities for the world to see. The array of red in her ledger, a litany of all the curses she had gathered to reach where she was. 

"I think he just understood that the serum isn't as magical as he wished it was," Wilson said, looking tired but exasperatedly amused, eyeing the black bag in Tony's hand, "Is that the frisbee?"

"He's going to drag himself off the bed to come and argue about how this isn't a frisbee now," Tony snorted but passed the bag to the other man, "Freshly fished and polished, one shield for the adrenaline junkie who's going to cost us a lawsuit for annoying the hospital staff soon."

"Ironic coming from you," Sam laughed but hefted the shield in his hand, weighing it on his palm, "Widow'll be back soon hopefully, but it's our turn to play matador now."

"It's fun to know you, WIlson," Tony quipped dryly and grinned as he picked the shield back up, nodding at him before he walked to the door, "You need anything?"

Sam Wilson breathed out and shrugged, exhaustion in every move of his body but shook his head and Tony thought for the millionth time about how this business always was filled with mad people. Good ones but still mad. 

He turned back to the door and pushed, striding in with the confidence of a man who was about to face an annoyed lion. 

"Present time," he called out to the man sitting up on the bed, the hospital gown failing miserably to hold in his bulk. Steve looked better, more alive since the last time Tony had seen him and he registered the wakeful alertness in the man's eyes when they slid over to meet his gaze. Tony shot him a shit-eating grin and Steve looked away, the sour mood definitely not budging.

Tony understood that. It was one thing to wake up to a world that had left you behind seven decades ago, no real connection to the faces you saw, and obituaries lined up of friends and family. That was shattering to any person and Steve had done what needed to be done when he had picked up the shield without pause, becoming the soldier where the man faltered. It was another ball-game altogether to realize that he had woken up to a lie too. 

The truth still rattled Tony and he had been one of the most sceptical people when it came to SHIELD. The thought of a Nazi group, long thought dead, living amonst them and shaping their history through the shadows - it sent a shiver of cold repugnance down his spine even now. 

But Tony hadn't been working with SHIELD. He hadn't carried out missions for them or worn their insignia. He hadn't lived and interacted and tried to make friends with people who had hailed Hydra as they turned on him. 

He wasn't Steve. 

He didn't even begin to think about the Winter Soldier because that was on another plane of existence. It was untouchable and not for Tony to poke, even with his level of curiousity and brashness. 

"Look what the fish dragged in," he said, walking around the bed to the single chair that was now empty. Steve glared at him but Tony was long used to being ignored and encroaching on dangerous zones. "Well,  _I_ dragged in, but the point still stands. Here," he put the shield on the bed, beside Steve and grinned down at the man, "Got you your red, white, and blue. Adds a little bit of colour to your new uniform."

Steve pointedly didn't touch the bag and Tony bit back a sigh, knowing that this mood was coming but still hoping that the shield would have helped. 

"Wilson's looking dead on his feet so I won't be surprised if he crashes before the hour," he kept up the chatter, determinedly pushing on, sitting on the chair and raising an eyebrow at the tray of food left untouched on the side table, "Wow, you got the good stuff, huh? I never get the peaches and -"

"When's Natasha reaching?" Steve cut him short and Tony bit back a wince at the hoarseness of Steve's voice. It could be attributed to the lack of use for so long but -

Well, he'd rather not think about it. 

"ETA 20 minutes," he said and showed Steve the message she had sent when she had left the conference, "Cap -"

"I'd like to be left alone now," Steve said curtly and no, that had never worked on Tony from anyone, "Let me know when she reaches."

"Yeah, sure," Tony nodded but stayed put. Steve shot him an annoyed look but Tony picked up his phone and glanced through it coolly, not moving an inch.

"Stark"

"I love how you shift to last names when you think you're intimidating," Tony said lazily and shot Steve a smirk, daring him to fight, "It's interesting."

"Get out"

"I'd love to," Tony quipped, not mincing words but meeting Steve's glare head-on, "But I brought you your shield and I'd like you to open the bag."

"Is it all about you?" Steve asked, cold and angry, and Tony raised an eyebrow.

"I'd like it to be but you always seem to think otherwise, so probably not," he shrugged before gesturing to the bag, "However, right now I brought you a present and you're being an ass about it, which is fine, really, it's not an alien concept to me. I'm the same at most times, it's fine. But I'm also stubborn enough to hold my chair."

"I can throw you out right now," Steve grit out and Tony paused before leaning forward, meeting Steve's stare with a calm gaze. 

"Sure, but I'm pretty wily so I'll likely just find another way back in," he commented and softened a bit, breathing in, "Cap. Steve, nobody's trying to teach you how to be or how to react. You know that."

"It sure looks like it," Steve muttered and Tony huffed, risking a limb when he patted Steve's shoulder. 

"Well, looks deceive when you're on morphine," he paused and glanced at the IV, "Or not, apparently, okay. But we're not, okay? We're just - we're trying to help."

Steve stayed stubbornly silent and Tony resigned himself to being ignored, going back to his phone. He almost missed it when Steve spoke again.

"He was a good man"

Tony didn't startle but it was by the inch of his skin. He looked up and saw Steve staring at the shield. 

"He was a good man who never wanted to go to war," the Captain spoke, quiet and heavy, "He got drafted. I'm not sure what he would have chosen if given a choice but -"

Tony stayed silent as Steve gathered a breath before continuing. 

"When we first found him, after Azzeno," Steve said, lost in another time, "He wasn't the same. He was still Bucky but I could tell. I could tell that something had changed him. but we were at war and every man was changed with a bullet he took or shot. It was the result of being on the front. It was part of what we were."

There was a cold breeze outside and Tony wondered if Steve felt it in his bones. 

"It wasn't that though and I didn't think about it till after he - well, he died," Steve shook his head, "He never wanted to be a hero. I dragged him into it. He followed me because it was me, his friend, and I let him fall. I let him take the fall for me."

"And now he's dead even though he's alive."

Tony didn't know Bucky Barnes, not outside the history book and comics he had read. The exhibition spoke of a loyal friend and soldier but it didn't hold the man who had been reluctant. 

He imagined being there, in those shoes. He knew that he couldn't imagine it. 

"Whoever he is," he said after a few minutes, quiet and firm in promise, "Whoever he finds in himself, he pulled you out from the river and that's not a machine. That's a man. And Cap, every man deserves a second chance."

Steve looked up to meet Tony's eyes and the billionaire smiled a little.

"You've got a team, Steve. And we're not leaving a man behind."

Steve exhaled and clutched at the shield, letting the words dissolve into the silence of the room but Tony knew that he needed to hear it. 

They sat there, in a silent resolve till Natasha came back to break the mood. 

**Author's Note:**

> This oneshot can be expanded into a fuller fic if you guys would like to see it. Please let me know in your feedback.


End file.
